Sol LeWitt – PRISKA PASQUER

DE / ENG

Sol LeWitt

*1928 Hartford Connecticut – 2007 New York

born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1928 – died in New York in 2007.

SOL LEWITT, Horizontal Lines, 1996-2005, Gouache on paper, 57.50 x 38.4 cm, courtesy PRISKA PASQUER, Cologne 2
SOL LEWITT | Horizontal Lines, 1996-2005

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SOL LEWITT | Horizontal Lines in Color, 2002

TRIPLE EXPANSION, Exhibition view, courtesy PRISKA PASQUER, Cologne-7
SOL LEWITT | Exhibition view

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SOL LEWITT | Exhibition view

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SOL LEWITT | Complex form #46, 1989

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SOL LEWITT | Black Cubes (2), 2000

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SOL LEWITT | Exhibition view

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SOL LEWITT | Exhibition view

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SOL LEWITT | Complex form #46, 1989

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SOL LEWITT | Exhibition view

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SOL LEWITT | Exhibition view

Tab 1 Tab 2 Tab 3

SOL LEWITT gilt als einer der wichtigsten Vertreter und Vordenker der konzeptuellen Kunst. “Die Idee wird zu einer Maschine, die Kunst macht”, formulierte er einmal kurz und bündig sein Grundkonzept. Wiederholung, modulare Formen, serielle Systeme und mathematische Gleichungen sind die Basis, auf der LEWITT seine Skulpturen und Wandmalereien entwickelte. Charakteristisch für sein Œuvre sind zudem binäre Gegensätze: offen/geschlossen, innen/außen, Zwei-/Dreidimensionalität. Die Ausführung seiner Arbeiten überließ er Assistenten.

Ganz im kritischen Bewusstsein der 60er-Jahre verwurzelt, brach LEWITT radikal mit zahlreichen Traditionen der Kunst und hinterfragte das Verhältnis von Werk und Autor. „Konzeptuelle Künstler sind eher Mystiker als Rationalisten. Sie wagen einen Sprung zu Lösungen, die durch Logik nicht erzielt werden können“, schrieb LEWITT 1969 in seinen „Sentences of Conceptual Art“, die zusammen mit der Schrift „Paragraphs on Conceptual Art“ von 1967 die Konzeptkunst begründeten und der Kunstrichtung ihren Namen gaben.

SOL LEWITTs Werk basiert auf dem Konstruktivismus des Bauhauses sowie der niederländischen Künstlervereinigung De Stijl. Der Amerikaner entwickelte die Ideen dieser Stilrichtungen weiter und experimentierte mit architektonischen Raumstrukturen, Gittermustern und Rasterkonstruktionen, die er auf ein Minimum reduzierte. Werke von LEWITT sind unter anderem in der Staatsgalerie Moderner Kunst in München, im New Yorker Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) und der Londoner Tate Gallery zu sehen. Er nahm zwischen 1968 und 1982 viermal an der documenta in Kassel teil und war 1977 und 1987 bei den Skulptur.Projekten in Münster vertreten.

Auf der Eingangsebene zeigt PRISKA PASQUER zwei Skulpturen: Eine weiße “Complex Form” aus dem Jahr 1989 und ein 2000 geschaffenes Duo von “Black Cubes”. Die glänzend schwarz lackierten Kuben bilden einen hermetisch geschlossenen Block. In Kontrast dazu steht die weiße “Complex Form” mit ihren vielfach gefalteten Oberflächen. Die scharfen Faltkanten erzeugen Differenzen zwischen optischer Wahrnehmung und faktischer Plastizität. Durch die verschiedenen Lichtbrechungen zerfallen die Längsseiten in eine geschlossene, den Blick führende Rück- und eine zerklüftete Vorderseite.

In den 1980er-Jahren begann SOL LEWITT mit Gouache zu malen. Diese abstrakten Werke führte er eigenhändig aus. Dabei arbeitete er in Serien, die um ein bestimmtes Motiv kreisten. Ergänzend zu den beiden Skulpturen zeigt PRISKA PASQUER drei schwarz-weiße Gouachen aus der Reihe “Horizontal Lines”.

Einzelausstellungen (Auswahl)
2018 Sol LeWitt 1 + 1 = 1 Million, Curated by Tom Sachs, Vito Schnabel, St. Moritz
2017 Sol LeWitt, Pace Prints, New York
2017 Sol LeWitt & Liz Deschenes, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
2017 Instructions for a Pyramid, Galería OMR, México, D.F
2017 One Wall, One Work : Sol Lewitt, Seven Walls / Seven Weeks, Krakow Witkin Gallery, Boston
2016 Sol LeWitt, Pace Prints, New York
2016 Dialogue: Betty Woodman / Sol LeWitt, James Barron Art
2015 MA SHO!, Luca De Rosso Fine Arts, New York
2015 My Show, Luca De Rosso Fine Arts, New York
2014 By Proxy, James Cohan, New York
2014 Kazuko Miyamoto: String and Thread ///////// Sol LeWitt: Walldrawing 815, EXILE, Berlin
2014 Sol LeWitt: Your mind is exactly at that line, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
2014 Sol Lewitt Exhibition 2014, Sims Reed Gallery, London
2013 Minimalism: Traces & Intervals, Chowaiki & Co., New York
2013 Sol LeWitt: Concrete Block Structure, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago
2011 The Arc and the Line: The Conceptual Prints of Sol LeWitt, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London
2008 Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective, MASS MoCA, North Adams
2005 Sol LeWitt: Circle with Towers and Curved Wall with Towers, Madison Square Park, New York
1999 Sol Le Witt – Senza Titolo, Fondazione VOLUME!, Rome
1997 New Work | Sol LeWitt, Rice University Art Gallery, Houston

Gruppenausstellungen (Auswahl)
2018 20th Century Masters: Prints & Painting, Untitled Projects, Los Angeles
2018 Paper, James Barron Art, Kent
2018 Downtown Art Ephemera, 1970s-1990s, Curated by Marc H Miller, James Fuentes, New York
2018 Political Art, Alpha 137 Gallery
2018 The Mid Century Modern Aesthetic, Alpha 137 Gallery
2018 Staff Favorites, Alpha 137 Gallery, New York
2018 Artists Skates, Plates, Pumpkins & Plaques…plus Shawls, Scarves, Handkerchiefs, Handbags, Jewelry & Clothing, Alpha 137 Gallery
2018 A Tradition of Revolution, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas
2018 Black & White – Group Exhibition, Crown Point Press, San Francisco
2018 Cross-Currents: Post-War Books, Prints & Multiples, Sims Reed Gallery, London
2018 Gifts of Love for Lovers of Art, Alpha 137 Gallery
2018 LeWitt / Shapiro / Walsh, Patrick De Brock Gallery, Knokke-Zoute
2018 Dedicated by the Artist, Alpha 137 Gallery
2018 Group Show 2018, Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Beverly Hills
2018 American Icons, Opera Gallery, Paris
2018 Armory Show 2018 (private), Bernard Jacobson Gallery
2018 Verdant Spring: A Group Exhibition, Crown Point Press, San Francisco
2018 Serra / LeWitt, Alan Cristea Gallery, London
2018 Master Drawings: Post-War & Contemporary, Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York
2018 Overlays, Krakow Witkin Gallery, Boston
2017 Degrees of Abstraction, Crown Point Press, San Francisco
2017 Linear Abstraction, Brooke Alexander, Inc., New York
2017 Summer Choices: A Group Exhibition, Crown Point Press, San Francisco
2017 Shades of Summer, Vivian Horan Fine Art, Online
2017 Summer Choices: A Group Exhibition, Crown Point Press, San Francisco
2017 Spring Mixed Exhibition, Alan Cristea Gallery, London
2017 Matsuyoi / Between Imperfection and Perfection, THE CLUB, Tokyo
2017 Rare Art Historical Ephemera from our private collection, Alpha 137 Gallery
2017 New Acquiscitions: Jim Dine, Helen Frankenthaler, Sol Lewitt, and Antoni Tapies, Zane Bennett Contemporary Art, Santa Fe
2017 Serialities, Hauser & Wirth, New York
2016 Annual Holiday Sale, Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York
2016 Group Exhibition: Sol LeWitt and Zhang Xiaogang, Pace Gallery, BeijingThe Architecture of Line: Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, Leon Polk Smith and others., Jason McCoy Gallery, New York
2016 Group Exhibition: Sol LeWitt and Zhang Xiaogang, Pace Gallery, Beijing
2016 FALL OFFERING, michael lisi / contemporary art, New York
2016 Los Angeles to New York: The Dwan Gallery, 1959-1971, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Washington
2016 Group Exhibition: Rhona Hoffman 40 Years, Part 1, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago
2016 John Zurier and Friends, Crown Point Press, San Francisco
2016 Painting That Does Not Radiate Feeling, michael lisi / contemporary art, New York
2016 Summer Arrivals: Works by Cruz-Diaz, Cornell, Dine, LeWitt, Ruscha, Serra, Stella, & Sultan, Zane Bennett Contemporary Art, Santa Fe
2016 Mystics and Rationalists, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford
2016 Excitement – An Exhibition by Rudi Fuchs, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam
2016 East on West, Andrea S. Keogh Art and Design
2016 From Point to Line: Works by Mel Bochner, Agnes Denes, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Mary Miss, Vera Molnar, Edda Renouf, Dorothea Rockburne, Fred Sandback, Richard Tuttle, Gunther Uecker, 2016 Lee Ufan, Senior & Shopmaker Gallery, New York
2016 Group Show, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London
2016 Arrangements, Carolina Nitsch Contemporary Art, New York
2016 Black/White: Including editions and monoprints by Tara Donovan, Leonardo Drew, Paul Morrison and Vik Muniz, Pace Prints, New York
2016 Post-war/Contemporary Highlight, Untitled Projects
2015 Printer’s Proof: Thirty Years at Wingate Studio, Wingate Studio, Boston
2016 Black Sun, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen
2016 Imagining Space: Constructions of Text and Geometry, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago
2016 Sol LeWitt, Tom Marioni, John Cage, Crown Point Press, San Francisco
2014 Sims Reed Gallery at The IFPDA Print Fair 2014, Sims Reed Gallery, London
2014 Redrawing Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #731, EXILE, New York
2014 Color and Impulse, Andrea S. Keogh Art and Design
2014 Mega Show with lots of artworks, Folio Test Partner, New York
2014 Logical Guesses curated by House of the Nobleman, Driscoll Babcock Galleries, New York
2013 Sandy’sTest Show, Folio Test Partner, New York City
2011 Eva Hesse and Sol LeWitt, Craig F. Starr Gallery, New York
2004 179th Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, NY, United States

Tab 1 Tab 2 Tab 3

SOL LEWITT is regarded as one of the most important representatives and pioneers of conceptual art. His basic concept, succinctly formulated by the artist himself, is that “the idea becomes a machine that makes the art”. Repetition, modular forms, serial systems and mathematical equations are the basis upon which LEWITT developed his sculptures and murals. Binary oppositions are another characteristic feature of his work open/closed, inside/outside, two-dimensionality/three-dimensionality. He left the task of executing his works to assistants.

Firmly rooted in the critical awareness of the 1960s, LEWITT broke radically with many art traditions, calling into question the relationship between work and author. “Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach”, wrote LEWITT in 1969 in his “Sentences of Conceptual Art” which, together with his “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” (1967), laid the foundations for conceptual art and gave the art movement its name.

SOL LEWITT’s work is based on the constructivism espoused by the Bauhaus school and by Dutch artistic movement De Stijl. He developed the ideas of these movements further and experimented with architectural spatial structures, lattice patterns and grid constructions which he reduced to a minimum. Works by LEWITT can be seen, for example, in the State Gallery of Modern Art in Munich, in the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and in London’s Tate Gallery. He took part in documenta in Kassel four times between 1968 and 1982 and was represented at Skulptur.Projekte in Münster in 1977 and 1987.

PRISKA PASQUER displays two sculptures on the entry level: a white “Complex Form” from 1989 and a “Black Cubes” duo created in 2000. Painted in gleaming black, the cubes form a hermetically sealed block that contrasts with the white “Complex Form” and its intricately folded surfaces. The sharp folding edges create differences between visual perception and actual plasticity. Through the different light refractions, the longitudinal sides break down into, on the one hand, a closed back side that directs the viewer’s gaze and, on the other, a jagged front side.

In the 1980s, SOL LEWITT began to paint with gouache, creating these abstract works himself. In doing so, he worked in series that revolved around a specific motif. In addition to the two sculptures, PRISKA PASQUER is displaying black-and-white gouaches from the “Horizontal Lines” series.

Solo Exhibitions (selection)
2018 Sol LeWitt 1 + 1 = 1 Million, Curated by Tom Sachs, Vito Schnabel, St. Moritz
2017 Sol LeWitt, Pace Prints, New York
2017 Sol LeWitt & Liz Deschenes, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
2017 Instructions for a Pyramid, GalerÃa OMR, MÃ©xico, D.F
2017 One Wall, One Work : Sol Lewitt, Seven Walls / Seven Weeks, Krakow Witkin Gallery, Boston
2016 Sol LeWitt, Pace Prints, New York
2016 Dialogue: Betty Woodman / Sol LeWitt, James Barron Art
2015 MA SHO!, Luca De Rosso Fine Arts, New York
2015 My Show, Luca De Rosso Fine Arts, New York
2014 By Proxy, James Cohan, New York
2014 Kazuko Miyamoto: String and Thread ///////// Sol LeWitt: Walldrawing 815, EXILE, Berlin
2014 Sol LeWitt: Your mind is exactly at that line, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
2014 Sol Lewitt Exhibition 2014, Sims Reed Gallery, London
2013 Minimalism: Traces & Intervals, Chowaiki & Co., New York
2013 Sol LeWitt: Concrete Block Structure, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago
2011 The Arc and the Line: The Conceptual Prints of Sol LeWitt, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London
2008 Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective, MASS MoCA, North Adams
2005 Sol LeWitt: Circle with Towers and Curved Wall with Towers, Madison Square Park, New York
1999 Sol Le Witt – Senza Titolo, Fondazione VOLUME!, Rome
1997 New Work | Sol LeWitt, Rice University Art Gallery, Houston

Group Exhibitions (Selection)
2018 20th Century Masters: Prints & Painting, Untitled Projects, Los Angeles
2018 Paper, James Barron Art, Kent
2018 Downtown Art Ephemera, 1970s-1990s, Curated by Marc H Miller, James Fuentes, New York
2018 Political Art, Alpha 137 Gallery
2018 The Mid Century Modern Aesthetic, Alpha 137 Gallery
2018 Staff Favorites, Alpha 137 Gallery, New York
2018 Artists Skates, Plates, Pumpkins & Plaques…plus Shawls, Scarves, Handkerchiefs, Handbags, Jewelry & Clothing, Alpha 137 Gallery
2018 A Tradition of Revolution, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas
2018 Black & White – Group Exhibition, Crown Point Press, San Francisco
2018 Cross-Currents: Post-War Books, Prints & Multiples, Sims Reed Gallery, London
2018 Gifts of Love for Lovers of Art, Alpha 137 Gallery
2018 LeWitt / Shapiro / Walsh, Patrick De Brock Gallery, Knokke-Zoute
2018 Dedicated by the Artist, Alpha 137 Gallery
2018 Group Show 2018, Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Beverly Hills
2018 American Icons, Opera Gallery, Paris
2018 Armory Show 2018 (private), Bernard Jacobson Gallery
2018 Verdant Spring: A Group Exhibition, Crown Point Press, San Francisco
2018 Serra / LeWitt, Alan Cristea Gallery, London
2018 Master Drawings: Post-War & Contemporary, Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York
2018 Overlays, Krakow Witkin Gallery, Boston
2017 Degrees of Abstraction, Crown Point Press, San Francisco
2017 Linear Abstraction, Brooke Alexander, Inc., New York
2017 Summer Choices: A Group Exhibition, Crown Point Press, San Francisco
2017 Shades of Summer, Vivian Horan Fine Art, Online
2017 Summer Choices: A Group Exhibition, Crown Point Press, San Francisco
2017 Spring Mixed Exhibition, Alan Cristea Gallery, London
2017 Matsuyoi / Between Imperfection and Perfection, THE CLUB, Tokyo
2017 Rare Art Historical Ephemera from our private collection, Alpha 137 Gallery
2017 New Acquiscitions: Jim Dine, Helen Frankenthaler, Sol Lewitt, and Antoni Tapies, Zane Bennett Contemporary Art, Santa Fe
2017 Serialities, Hauser & Wirth, New York
2016 Annual Holiday Sale, Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York
2016 Group Exhibition: Sol LeWitt and Zhang Xiaogang, Pace Gallery, BeijingThe Architecture of Line: Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, Leon Polk Smith and others., Jason McCoy Gallery, New York
2016 Group Exhibition: Sol LeWitt and Zhang Xiaogang, Pace Gallery, Beijing
2016 FALL OFFERING, michael lisi / contemporary art, New York
2016 Los Angeles to New York: The Dwan Gallery, 1959-1971, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Washington
2016 Group Exhibition: Rhona Hoffman 40 Years, Part 1, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago
2016 John Zurier and Friends, Crown Point Press, San Francisco
2016 Painting That Does Not Radiate Feeling, michael lisi / contemporary art, New York
2016 Summer Arrivals: Works by Cruz-Diaz, Cornell, Dine, LeWitt, Ruscha, Serra, Stella, & Sultan, Zane Bennett Contemporary Art, Santa Fe
2016 Mystics and Rationalists, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford
2016 Excitement – An Exhibition by Rudi Fuchs, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam
2016 East on West, Andrea S. Keogh Art and Design
2016 From Point to Line: Works by Mel Bochner, Agnes Denes, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Mary Miss, Vera Molnar, Edda Renouf, Dorothea Rockburne, Fred Sandback, Richard Tuttle, Gunther Uecker, 2016 Lee Ufan, Senior & Shopmaker Gallery, New York
2016 Group Show, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London
2016 Arrangements, Carolina Nitsch Contemporary Art, New York
2016 Black/White: Including editions and monoprints by Tara Donovan, Leonardo Drew, Paul Morrison and Vik Muniz, Pace Prints, New York
2016 Post-war/Contemporary Highlight, Untitled Projects
2015 Printer’s Proof: Thirty Years at Wingate Studio, Wingate Studio, Boston
2016 Black Sun, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen
2016 Imagining Space: Constructions of Text and Geometry, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago
2016 Sol LeWitt, Tom Marioni, John Cage, Crown Point Press, San Francisco
2014 Sims Reed Gallery at The IFPDA Print Fair 2014, Sims Reed Gallery, London
2014 Redrawing Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #731, EXILE, New York
2014 Color and Impulse, Andrea S. Keogh Art and Design
2014 Mega Show with lots of artworks, Folio Test Partner, New York
2014 Logical Guesses curated by House of the Nobleman, Driscoll Babcock Galleries, New York
2013 Sandy’sTest Show, Folio Test Partner, New York City
2011 Eva Hesse and Sol LeWitt, Craig F. Starr Gallery, New York
2004 179th Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, NY, United States

TRIPLE EXPANSION, Elena Bajo – Jane Benson – Sol LeWitt

Sep 7 – Nov 24, 2018

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SOL LEWITT, Horizontal Lines, 1996-2005, Gouache on paper, 57.15 x 38.1 cm, courtesy PRISKA PASQUER, Cologne 2

SOL LEWITT, Horizontal Lines, 1996-2005, Gouache on paper, 57.50 x 38.4 cm, courtesy PRISKA PASQUER, Cologne 2

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TRIPLE EXPANSION, Exhibition view, courtesy PRISKA PASQUER, Cologne-7

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